Mark Millar Talks KICK-ASS 2, AMERICAN JESUS, SECRET SERVICE and JUPITER’S CHILDREN

Take any of the following dates, deadlines or confirmations with a grain of salt because Mark Millar (Kick-Ass) is not known to be the most reliable person when it comes to movie news. However, in a recent interview, the comics writer did give an update on a few of his projects possibly being adapted for the big screen, including Kick-Ass 2, American Jesus and Secret Service. While it looks like Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class) won’t be back to direct the sequel to Kick-Ass, Millar suggests that Vaughn may be attached as a producer when they supposedly shoot this summer. Hit the jump for more.

In an interview with the Scottish Daily Record, Millar stated that filming on Kick-Ass 2 would indeed start this summer, along with some other projects:

“We shoot Kick-Ass 2 and American Jesus this summer. Then Matthew and I have Secret Service, which is a neddy James Bond.”

The original 2010 hit starred breakout actress Chloe Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Aaron Johnson and Nicolas Cage. The difficulty may come in reuniting the original cast as Moretz and Mintz-Plass have a full slate of projects, something Mintz-Plasse spoke about last year.

Millar did comment further on his other projects, including American Jesus:

“If you are doing a movie about the return of Jesus as the Bible prophesied in the Book of Revelation, you have got to do it straight and treat it with dignity. I’m not taking the piss. It will be treated like a proper film…A lot of people are surprised because much of my work is irreverent and expect the same with American Jesus. But I want it to be a beautiful film. A film about the returned Jesus Christ has amazing artistic potential. Jesus shows up in the middle of the financial crisis, America is in turmoil and the Eurozone is collapsing. They are quite apocalyptic times that we are living in with the gap between rich and poor. It is the reverse of The Omen, which is about a kid who finds out he is the anti-Christ. This is a kid who finds out he is Jesus Christ.”

If the return of Christ (in America?) to solve a financial crisis isn’t your cup of tea, perhaps Secret Service is more in line:

“We came up with this idea of a wee ned who becomes a gentleman spy, ditching his trainers for his Savile Row suits and being taught how to speak properly. The reason he gets chosen is that a guy like that is disposable. I am a massive Bond fan and Secret Service is like My Fair Lady meets James Bond. I am halfway through the comic and Matthew and I are halfway through the script. There is a good role for a 50-something actor to play an older gentleman spy training this young kid. There are not a lot of tough actors in that age group but you would never believe Colin Firth or Hugh Grant in a fight scene. We are bouncing names around.”

Finally, Millar has predicted that his story, Jupiter’s Children, about “superheroes in an intergalactic saga that traverses both space and time” will be “the biggest sci-fi franchise since Star Wars.” Make of that (and the rest of Millar’s comments) what you will.

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